Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-05-27
A Gigantic Idol.

UiganllC luVis
The temple Of Dai-Doutsou (the great
Buddha) seems n temple built for fun
an enormous joke to amuse the faithful.
This "Great Buddha" has only head
and shoulders at least ninety-five feet
high; he seems to be rising from the
depths of the earth, with his neck
stretching up like someone making
painful effort to struggle out of the
ground. He alone fills all his temple,
and his curling hair touches its roof.
One reaches him, just as all the gods
are reached, by series OF stairways,
porticoes and courts. From the gate
Of the sanctuary one cannot very we'll
explain to oneself at the first glance what
is that hillocl1 of gold, that shapeless
mass in front (the shoulders OF Buddha).
1t is only afterward, when you look up
very high, that you see far above you
the colossal gilded face, the huge fixed
eyes gazing down upon you from the
height of ninety feet with idiotic placid
ity.
find myself, says writer in French
paper, making this pilgrimage at the
same time as good-natured Nippon
family of country people who have come
to the holy city for the first time; and
the good folks, especially the ladies,
cannot get over the idea OF seeing so
big god, and there are cries of "Ah"
and ooh p-exclamatio Of surprise
little screams and little laughs. Now,
really this Buddha is just too funny,
ranly ann his cfnniH
air-funny as any Of those snow men
which urchins make at the corners OF the
streets-funny as some enormous creature
made to order by little children.
And there the little country family
are all laughing light under the gods
nose-laughing till the tears roll down
their cheeks and the other visitors, and
even the guardian bronzes themselves,
also laugh 10 see them laugh. Then
they all look at me to see how feel
about it, and l have to laugh, too
can't possibly help it. What country
this Japan, where everything is oddly
and contrast! Who could ever imagine
that this frivolous little temple, with its
reverences and its eternal laugh, could
have lived through centuries locked up in
such ferocious mystery and have given
birth to those thousands of other tenn
Piles, with their monsters and their hob
goblins9
Bv the payment of two cents one is
privileged TO make the round of the
great Buddha- -one asccnds by a series of
sloping plank galleries, placed at very
steep angle, on which you can pass be-
hind the head of the colossus, little
above the nape of tho neck. advance
upon it, still accompanied by the voyag-
ing family; the sloping way is slippery,
old, broken through here and there,
worm. eaten. the ladies very nearly fall
l put out my hand to help them, and
then we become good friends right away.
| Behind the enormous head, in dark
nook, an oil bronze is squatting down.
For one cent he shows US suit of armor
q, d a war mask which once belonged
to the great Sama, and then
he throws open for our benefit sundry
very ancient idol closets, in which
animal headed divinitics are conserved
with various relics of weird aspect.
There we do not laugh any more.
In the court of this temple is the most
monstrous of all the bells of Kioto-at
least seven, or perhaps eight yards around.
1t is rung by means OF an enormous
beam tipped with iron---a sort of batter
ng ram suspended horizontally with
ropes.
For two cents extra one has the right
to experiment with it. I harness my.
self to the pulling straps, a circle is
formed around me and children lun up.
Even two or three young girls come be.
hind me to take hold, bothering me ,
great deal, pulling the wrong way hall
the time, bursting into fits of laughter.
The united strength of the three il
almost equal to the power of three good
kittens.
Meanwhile the battering ram begins
to yield. Gradually it begins to swing.
Boom! booml A sound awful, cavern
Gus, and prolonged into mighty orches-
trail vibrations which must be heard
through the whole of the sacred city.